Moz Q&A is closed.
After more than 13 years, and tens of thousands of questions, Moz Q&A closed on 12th December 2024. Whilst we’re not completely removing the content - many posts will still be possible to view - we have locked both new posts and new replies. More details here.
Do citations count as backlinks?
-
Hello,
So I may have a simple question- do citations such as yp and manta for an example count as backlinks?
So if they do, would this be a natural link so good for seo? or a citation where it may be a backlink, but not very helpful for seo backlink profile?
Thank you to all
-
Hi Berner,
Good question and some thoughtful answers here. I'll chime in with my 2 pesos.
A citation is defined as a web-based reference to a local business' complete or partial NAP (name, address, phone). A citation does not have to include a link the company website. For example, a blogger could mention your restaurant's name and address, leave out the phone number and not link to the restaurant's website and that would still count as a citation, meaning that the business owner must be certain that the blogger has accurately published the restaurant's name and address.
On more standardized platforms, like local business directories, nearly all allow you to include a link to your website. This does count as a link, but whether it is nofollowed or not is up to the individual directory. So, this does bear on how much 'juice' a given link is passing your way.
Regardless, if your business is a local one, citations are a core part of the work you will be doing to promote your business on the Internet. If your business model isn't truly local, then citations aren't really meant for you.
I think you'll really enjoy reading the great section in the new Moz Local Learning Center that covers the ins and outs of citations. Tons of great resources here for you: http://moz.com/learn/local/listings
Hope this will help, and kudos to all on the good responses on this thread!
-
I am pretty much thirding what everyone else says, but with a little grey hat twist.
They help on both a local and a (not to the same extent) national level. One thing that helps them even more is having reviews attached to them. I owned a small business, it was a cabinet company. We went from doing about 80k a year to several million a year flatly because of SEO. The strategy I used in the beginning still works for small businesses. I created accounts at all of the local places, yp, yelp, angieslist, google, and so on. Then I sent the links around to friends, family, customers, ect, and asked them to post a review. Soon after doing that (because no one hardly reviews cabinet companies) we had the most reviews, so we were at the top of the lists. As far as I know this still works today and I would nail it if I was in your position. Because this is a grey area, I would also like to mention not to work with people that will "get" you reviews. They are buying them, if you get caught it might undo everything that you have worked for.
-
The thumb rule here is that any website that is linking back to your website regardless of it as a citation website or a blog or anything else will be call as backlink and will be consider as part of your link profile.
Will this help with SEO? Here if you are talking about Local SEO, the answer is YES! If you have a business listed in different citation website with consistent NAPs, then yes you will get Local SEO benefit for it but will this help improve your rankings in search engine from the targeted key phrases… may be a little but don’t expect this as your huge success.
Websites like YP.com, Yelp and few others… for them you have to think more than just SEO, your proper listing will more valuable then rankings because these can give you real leads then just traffic!
Hope this helps!
-
Just a little "FYI" any link to your site is a "back link". But to answer your question, these definitely count and are very valuable in local seo. To rank in local search in Google Maps, the number of these citations, the authority of the citation sources, and the consistency of your NAP ( Name, Address and Phone Number) is a major factor. Moz just launched Moz local which helps populate many of these sources. I'm on my phone or I would link to a few resources. Google "top 20 local SEO ranking factors moz" and you'll see a post by Miriam Ellis which is definitely useful.
Browse Questions
Explore more categories
-
Moz Tools
Chat with the community about the Moz tools.
-
SEO Tactics
Discuss the SEO process with fellow marketers
-
Community
Discuss industry events, jobs, and news!
-
Digital Marketing
Chat about tactics outside of SEO
-
Research & Trends
Dive into research and trends in the search industry.
-
Support
Connect on product support and feature requests.
Related Questions
-
Impact of distribution of backlinks across multiple pages
Community, I would be interested to see if anyone has been seeing any experiments, experience documentation, or other data that would give context around the impact of pointing backlinks not just to your money page / home page but distribute it across pages. When doing competitive research I often run into competition which has lower domain strength and page rank but a link profile that is more spread out across their domain; these competitors often outrank my site despite their individual page properties being weaker. Any reference to existing documented experiments, personal experience or guidance is welcome.
Link Building | | italiansoc0 -
Backlinks through dofollow commenting
I'm interested in building backlinks to my photography business site by leaving good, engaging comments on other photographers' DoFollow blogs. Is this a good idea? Is it worth the effort? Through a little research, I've managed to locate more than 40 dofollow photographer blogs that have a domain authority of 35+. The idea is to take an hour or so a week to leave 10-20 comments on their blog posts. Would you consider this a good strategy? I rank on the first and second page of most of my keywords that I'm working on, but I want to rank 1st or 2nd on them. I used the keyword finder tool on google adwords to find the keywords that are the most searched for in my area. Surprisingly the competition is not large, so I'm fairly comfident I can get there. I've already optimized my site substantially and I'm looking into link building. Thoughts?
Link Building | | studio35design0 -
Using Schema markup for backlinks
Hi, Is there any benefits for using schema markup for backlinks. Using for Article directory submission,Drupal Submission etc.. mUz1umK.png?1
Link Building | | ruddyhapiq0 -
Ways to remove spammy backlinks
Hello everyone, I got hit with an algorithm penalty and need to start removing old backlinks ASAP. Does anyone have any good resources on how best to ask webmasters for removal? Are there any other ways to remove bad back links besides the disavow tool? (An SEO consultant I talked to said that they had a proprietary software that can remove them - is that possible?) Thanks all,
Link Building | | CleanEdisonInc1 -
PR1 and PR2 backlinks
We're doing some content marketing. I've heard that it is a good idea to target even PR1 and PR2 sites (small DA sites). I'm concerned about these sites disappearing after a few months, as we've found that losing a backlink can sting a bit and be worse than never having it. Though this isn't as big a deal any more. Anyways, can somebody say when a PR1/PR2 backlink would be appropriate to go after? Some of them would be easy and if it's appropriate I'd like to include them. So far they would only pass our standards if they are Above PR0 Look like a white hat, quality site from the outside Have a clean backlink profile Look like they're going to stick around Successful Social Media Accounts a plus What are you guys' criteria for including these sites? Do you gain value from them?
Link Building | | BobGW0 -
Do Local Listings like Yellow Pages and yelp count for backlinks??
I am wondering if adding your company with url on a local listing like yellowpages.com, yelp.com, merchantCircle.com, etc. actually counts as a "backlink"? I'm thinking it is not considered a link because I have never seen one listing in Open site explorer, either that, or it is considered a backlink, just not one important enough for open site explorer to show it. Does anyone know for sure??
Link Building | | DTOSI0 -
Building backlinks for a newspaper site?
Anyone have tips on building links to a newspaper site? I am looking for a strategy to create links to a news site beyond building one link at a time. We have so much content that is constantly updated that it would be impossible to do this one page at a time.
Link Building | | BostonWright0 -
Press Release Sites for Backlinks
OK, I read a previous thread about whether people found press release sites useful (specifically I am considering a reputable pay for release service). I understand the knock on press releases in this digital age (namely that no one reads them and arguably never did . . . ), but I was interested in moving the discussion in a different direction . . . Do press releases services really help a sites performance based on increased backlinking? Is there a SEO benefit to PR services? My company is a local print company. I've done quite a bit of research on my local competitors, and specifically for a couple products we would like to dominate. The good news is that it looks like the hurdle would not be terribly high to really take over the web presence with a well planned and executed website/SEO campaign. My inclination is that for a relatively small company like mine (dealing with relatively small competitors) it WOULD benefit me to pay for the sheer number of backlinks a PR program would generate. The monthly cost is frankly about the same as the cost of this site, which OF COURSE I get value from (hey moderator, how about a couple extra MOZ points for that one!) Specifically, I am looking at this for myself, but feel free to expand the question to the broader topic.
Link Building | | damon12121